Our flight to Broome was probably the best flight we’ve had;
in fact, it was two flights, with a quick layover. We always LOVE when there is a meal or snack
served on our flights, which, as you can guess, there was on both flights;
however, we must have looked really really poor or something, because on the
first flight, the flight attendant gave us two extra big muffins each, after
having given us the standard first muffin, and on the second flight actually
made a little lunch bag for us with a wrap and bunch of chocolates that he
handed us as we were walking off the flight.
Best flight ever right!? Anyway,
that started us off well.
The airport in Broome was pretty teenie, which always makes
getting out and around easier. We were
able to pick up the outrageously overpriced shuttle, which dropped us off at
our campsite. Cable Beach is one of the
top beaches to visit in Australia, but there is actually absolutely nothing in
Cable Beach. The “town” is Broome, which
is a 20 minute car ride from Cable Beach through absolutely nothing. When you look at a map of a small town, you
seem to think that everything will be easily walk-able. This was not; well I guess it could have been
if we were willing to walk like an hour in pretty oppressive heat and
humidity. We got to our campsite, set up
our tent and immediately stripped down.
Normally when we fly, we try to wear our heaviest stuff, so we both had
on pants, hiking boots, and some sort of winter attire on top. We did a quick inventory of the campsite;
some campsites have loaded kitchens, washers, dryers, and some are totally
bare. This one was pretty great, the
kitchen had a microwave and water heater, there was a fridge and washers and
dryers and a big tub sink for laundry.
Anyway, after scoping out the joint, we headed to the beach, which ended
up being a much longer walk than expected due to the map being way off scale. Anyway, we made it to the beach, and basically
hung out there for the rest of the day, as it was too hard to go into town and
figure out activities. So the first day
was a nice relaxing beach day. Even
though Jared denies it, I think he has a bit of a harder time sitting and doing
nothing (I have zero problem with that), so he was a bit more antsy. Toward the end of the afternoon, we set off
back to the campsite. Jared took a big
risk and had me cut his hair, military fade and all (I had done it once to my
brother and botched it up, so I was a bit nervous), and I did a pretty darn
good job, if I do say so myself. That
evening, we ate our airplane packed meals and a few protein bars for dinner,
watched a movie in the tent, and called it an early night.
The next day was some town festival, so we woke up, had an
early morning workout session at the beach, and after cleaning up again, made
our way into town via the bus. There are
two main areas to Broome, Town Beach and Chinatown. Our first stop was the information center to
figure out what there was to do around town.
The answer to that: absolutely nothing.
We could not do anything exciting for free. We asked about walking to Town Beach, and
what we might be able to see or do there, and she literally said, there was
nothing in Town Beach either, you can’t even swim at the beach (see: salties). Jeez.
So, with that in mind, we decided to hit up the local McDonalds for
crappy internet, and then made our way to a bit of shade under a tree in a
park. We got lucky, and that afternoon
was the annual Chinatown fair, so we got to see the cute small town parade with
lots of little floats and kids. There
were also overpriced food trucks, face painting and pretty terrible music. After watching the parade and meandering a
bit, we hit up the grocery store for some seriously cheap food, including a 10
cent half gallon of milk, (jackpot!) and set out to wait for the bus back to
Cable Beach. When we got back to the
campsite, we cooked up our dinners.
Jared has become a water-heater-cooking expert of a sort; he has figured
out some pretty unconventional things to cook it kettles, like eggs, and, that evening,
pasta. Some of the other people at the
campsite, were looking at use sideways as I poured the pasta into the kettle,
but after explaining, they too realized it was pretty genius. We have really figured out so many
corner-cutting tips for traveling.
Anyway, we had our dinner and opted out of a movie that night, as Jared
was all tuckered out.
The next morning, we decided to wake up early and take the
7:30am bus out to the point, where, apparently during low tide, you can see
dinosaur footprints! Some of the other
people at the campsite gave us the inside scoop on where to see them etc, as it
can actually be quite difficult to pick them out among all the broken and sharp
rocks. So, no workout that morning, we
had some breakfast from the last bits of Jared’s Afghanistan stash, and rode
the bus out to the point. We could have
walked, but it was about a 7km walk from the campsite, and we knew we’d have to
walk back as there was only that one bus in the morning to the area. We sort of figured we’d be able to lie on the
beach and read or nap. Unfortunately, when
we got to the point, there was nothing but a rocky cliff. We tried to find a spot of shade among the
rocks, which worked for about 45 minutes before the sun hit us. The only place nearby was a pagoda with
picnic tables and benches. At about
11am, we had to give up the view of the ocean and the breeze and opt for the
picnic tables. Sadly, after about 3
hours of lying down on a picnic bench, something inside of me started
screaming, and I could not just lie any longer.
We decided to give up our quest for dinosaur footprints and make the
long way back to our side of the beach.
The sun was hot, our water supply borderline, and we had about 7km to
walk. Luckily, as we were walking back
along the road, two nice girls picked us up and took about 2km off of our
walk. Apparently, they decided to pick
us up, after one of them actually stated “God, I’d hate to be them”. So, that was generous of them. The remainder of the walk was nice; we were
able to make it onto the sandy beach and walk the remaining 5km along the
water, which makes 1000% difference compared to walking along a dusty highway. Jared headed back to the campsite to get some
camera equipment for the sunset, while I lounged on the beach a bit. That evening we watched the sunset over the
beach before heading back to the campsite for dinner. I quickly want you to take inventory on what
we did that day: bused to the point, did absolutely nothing until we walked
back, watched the sunset, the end; I’m just saying, it was a slow day.
The next morning, we were prepared for a slow day
again. Like I said, there is really
nothing to do in Cable Beach. Also, as a
side note, I mentioned earlier that Cable Beach is renowned as one of the
nicest beaches in Australia. I gotta
say, we were not the biggest fans. I
mean, yes, it is a nice long beach, the sand is much better than that brown sharp
sand we mostly get in the US, but the water was a bit sandy and there were big
red jelly fish everywhere. This is
apparently the area that has the really serious teenie tiny jelly fish that
paralyze and kill a person in the water, so we at least dodged that season, which
starts in October (we dodged it by a hair), and at which time, I’m told, people
don’t even dare to put their big toe in the ocean. I should also mention, after writing that
part about the sand and water…we are HUGE snobs now when it comes to views and
beaches…HUGE, I will apologize in advance for any future comments I make. It was a lovely beach…but seriously, go to
Whitehaven. I did a mini-workout, while
Jared was a lazy bones. We had breakfast
and headed to the beach for a bit. The
big plan that evening was to go to the Staircase to the Moon. This happens every month for about 3 days
during the full moon. Everyone gathers
at Town Beach in the evening and watches as the sun sets behind them and the
moon rises in front of them. After a bit
of sunning and lounging, we made our way back to the camp and hopped on the bus
into town. We first stopped in Chinatown
and browsed the supermarket for anymore sweet deals, of which we found none, so
we went to the bottle shop to drown our sorrows, haha just kidding. We did pick up a bottle of wine for that
evening some and nice ciders for that afternoon. I guess that’s what you do when there is
literally nothing to do…drink. So, we
popped open our nice cold ciders and went to the same park as the day before,
sat in the shade and read, while sipping on our drinks. As the afternoon waned, we packed up our
stuff and started the kind of long walk to Town Beach, again the maps we were
given we severely misleading, and what looked like a 10 minute walk on the map,
was really more like a 40 minute walk.
Since there was whatever festival that week, all of the same vendors had
set up at the beach, including a few new ones, through which we browsed in an
effort to waste time before sunset. As
the sun started its low decent, we found a good spot to watch the moon rising,
and took out our stash of protein bars and the red wine. The Staircase to the Moon is basically what
appears during low tide, as the water receded over the mudflats of the bay, the
moon rises over the horizon and casts its glow over the ripples in the mudflat
creating a perfect column of striated beams from the horizon to dry land. This column, due to its striations, looks
similar to a staircase. That evening,
the first glimpse of the moon as it broke the horizon was wonderful. You know sometimes when the moon looks really
really large, like it’s somehow much closer to Earth? Well it shone just as big, and bright
orange. It was a pretty neat sight. As it rose higher it began to shine its glow
along the mudflat creating the staircase.
The whole transition didn’t take very long, and was something you might
imagine could be seen anywhere in the world (though, they of course advertised
that this is the only place it can be seen), but the effect was none-the-less
inspiring. After the moon rose high and
the sky turned black, we packed up our little beach picnic and made the last
bus back to our neck of the woods. That
evening, we had dinner with some of the other campers at our sight, all sharing
the evenings show…like I said, there isn’t a whole lot to do there, but it was
nice.
The next morning was our last. We woke up, ate, and leisurely packed our
things. Our flight wasn’t until that
evening, so we tried to wait around doing nothing at the campsite, so as to
keep an eye on our belongings, before getting a bit stir crazy. One of our camping neighbors offered to watch
our things for us, which allowed us to make one more pit stop at the
beach. We quick headed down for a nice
dip and stroll, and then headed back and to the airport, heading for Perth. All-in-all, Cable Beach, very nice; look for
a quiet time and rent a car.
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